NY Times March 22, 2012, 10:59 am Construction Worker Killed in Building Collapse in Manhattan By AL BAKER Robert Caplin for The New York Times
The building that collapsed Thursday, killing a worker and injuring two others, was a vacant two-story warehouse built in 1915... The workers were employed by Breeze National Inc. of Brooklyn, a company whose founder, Toby Romano Sr., was convicted of federal bribery charges in 1988 and has been identified by law enforcement officials as having ties to organized crime. Mr. Romano left the company in 2009; it is now run by Toby Romano Jr., his son. The subcontractor’s work was being overseen by Lend Lease, the successor company to Bovis, the construction management giant that oversaw the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhattan and, in a 2008 agreement with prosecutors, acknowledged failures that contributed to the deaths of two firefighters in a blaze at the bank building a year earlier. In 2010, after a worker died in a fall at a job site on West 129th Street that was also connected to Columbia’s expansion, Breeze National was cited for two violations related to its lack of fall protection, said Ted Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The violations carried fines of $14,000. “The company accepted the citation, corrected the hazard and paid a fine” of $1,687, Mr. Fitzgerald said. And in 2007, the city denied the company’s application for a license to cart trash or construction debris, said Kamran Mumtaz, a City Hall spokesman. It was put on a “caution list” of contractors and has no current contracts with the city, he said. Richard A. Weiss, a spokesman for the laborers’ union [Local 79], said Breeze National was a, “good, responsible contractor.” “This type of work is dangerous, and it is just a horrible, horrible tragedy,” said Mr. Weiss, who said Mr. Kirby had suffered a broken arm and head trauma. --- The New York Post March 30, 2003, Sunday MONEY MAN FOR 'MOB-TAINTED' UNION QUITS by AL GUART The treasurer of a major city construction union with a history of mob infiltration has resigned after auditors recently found "questionable expenses" in the union's books, The Post has learned. Daniel Kearney, secretary treasurer of the 15,000-member Mason Tenders District Council (MTDC), left the union two weeks ago. "In the course of filing year-end reports [for 2002], some questionable expenses were found. The union has been made whole," said Richard Weiss, a spokesman for Local 79, one of the locals under the Mason Tenders' umbrella. --- September 16, 2004 M.T.A. Project Rocked Anew By Mafia Link By CHARLES V. BAGLI; William Glaberson contributed reporting for this article. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's effort to turn a vacant 32-story office building at the foot of Manhattan into its headquarters has long been regarded by many as a fiasco -- more than $300 million over budget and plagued by leaky pipes, courtroom battles and accusations of cronyism. The 43-count indictment charged a soldier in the Gambino crime family, Edward Garafolo; his son Mario, a union business agent for Local 79 of the Laborers union; and a fourth man with fraud for the bogus bills and extortion that took place at the agency's headquarters project. All pleaded not guilty yesterday. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
